His crusades against political oppression have been widely praised, and his trips abroad—100 by the year 2003—have attracted enormous crowds (some of the largest ever assembled). With these trips, John Paul has covered a distance far greater than that traveled by all other popes combined. They have been an outward sign of the efforts at global bridge-building between nations and between religions that have been central to his pontificate.

John Paul II has beatified and canonised far more saints than any other previous pope in history. Whether he has canonised more saints than all his predecessors put together, as is sometimes claimed, is difficult to prove as the records of many early canonisations are incomplete or missing.

On 14 March2004 his pontificate overtook Leo XIII's as the longest in the history of the papacy other than Bl Pius IX and St. Peter. The length of his term is in extreme contrast with that of his predecessor John Paul I, who died suddenly after only 33 days in office (and in whose memory John Paul II named himself).

In 1967Pope Paul VI elevated him to cardinal. In August1978, following Pope Paul's death, he participated in the Papal Conclave that elected Albino Luciani, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, as Pope John Paul I. At 65, Luciani was a young man by papal standards. While Wojtyła at 58 could have expected to participate in another papal conclave before reaching the age of eighty (the upper age limit for cardinal electors), he could hardly have expected that his second conclave would come so soon, for on 28 September1978, after only 33 days in the papacy, Pope John Paul I died, in circumstances that still remain mysterious. In October 1978 Wojtyła returned to Vatican City to participate in the second conclave in less than two months.

The conclave itself was divided between two particularly strong candidates: Giuseppe Siri, the reactionary Archbishop of Genoa, and Giovanni Benelli, the liberal Archbishop of Florence and close associate of Pope John Paul I. In early ballots Benelli came within nine votes of victory. Wojtyła however secured election as the compromise candidate, in part through the support of liberal cardinals like Franz König and conservatives who had previously supported Siri. On election, the first non-Italian pope for nearly half a millennium was referred to by many simply as the man for a far country. In terms of his age, his nationality, and his rugged health, the former athlete and playwright broke all the papal rules. He was to become the dominant twentieth-century pope of the Catholic Church, eclipsing Pope Paul VI in travels, Pope Pius XII in intellectual vigour, and Pope John XXIII in charisma.

When on October 16, 1978 (first Mass on October 22), at age 58, he succeeded Pope John Paul I, he fulfilled a prophesy made to him decades earlier by Padre Pio that he would one day be pope. There was also another part to the prediction. The monk with the stigmata also predicted that Wojtyła's reign would be short and end in blood, a prophesy that almost became true when on May 13, 1981 he was shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square to address a general audience. But far from having a short reign, John Paul II became one of the longest reigning Popes in history.

There have been unproven speculations that the assassination was ordered by the Soviet Union. Two days after Christmas in 1983, Pope John Paul went to the prison and met with his would-be assassin.

Like his predecessor, John Paul II opted to simplify his office to make it a less regal institution. He also opted not to use the Royal Plural, referring to himself as "I" instead of "We". John Paul also opted for a simple inauguration ceremony instead of the formal coronation. He has not worn the Papal Tiara either during his term in office. This was done to emphasize the servant role that is expressed in Servus Servorum Dei (Servant of the Servants of God).

There was a plot to assassinate the Pope during his visit to Manila in January1995, as part of Operation Bojinka, a mass terrorist attack that was developed by Al-Qaida members Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. A suicide bomber would dress up as a priest. He would then use the disguise to get closer to the Pope's motorcade so that he could kill him by detonating himself. Before January 15, the day which the men would attack the Pope during Philippine visit, an apartment fire led investigators led by Aida Fariscal to Yousef's laptop computer, which had terrorist plans on it, as well as clothes and items that suggested an assassination plot. Yousef would be arrested in Pakistan about a month later, but Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not arrested until 2003.

John Paul II has written and delivered a number of speeches on the subject of the Church's relationship with Jews, and has often paid homage to the victims of the Holocaust in many nations. One of the few popes to have grown up in a climate of flourishing Jewish culture, one of the key components of pre-war Kraków, his interest in Jewish life dates from early youth. His visit to the Synagogue of Rome was the first by a pope since the founding of the Catholic Church.

The Anti-Defamation League recently stated, "The Anti-Defamation League congratulates Pope John Paul II on the 25th anniversary of his papacy. His deep commitment to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people has been fundamental to his papacy. Jews throughout the world are deeply grateful to the Pope. He has defended the Jewish people at all times, as a priest in his native Poland and during his pontificate....We pray that he remains healthy for many years to come, that he achieves much success in his holy work and that Catholic-Jewish relations continue to flourish." [1]

He is considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to the ordination of women, and has been critical of Liberation Theology and those who regard themselves Catholics while questioning the church's teachings on faith and morals. In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) he reasserted the church's condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. His stands on capital punishment, world debt forgiveness, and poverty issues are considered politically liberal, showing that 'conservative' and 'liberal' labels are not easily assigned to religious leaders.
In 2003, John Paul II also became a prominent critic of the U.S. war against Iraq. He sent his Peace Minister, Pío Cardinal Laghi, to talk with George W. Bush to express opposition to the war. The Catholic Church says that it is up to the United Nations to solve the international conflict through diplomacy and that a unilateral aggression is a crime against peace and a violation of international law.

As the youngest pope since Pope Pius IX was elected in 1846, John Paul entered the papacy as an exceptionally healthy, relatively young man who, unlike previous popes, swam and skied. However, after over twenty-five years on the papal throne, two serious assassination attempts, the first of which injured him, and a number of cancer scares, John Paul's physical health is poor. In May 2003, the Vatican confirmed that, as international observers had suspected, Pope John Paul is suffering from Parkinson's disease. He has difficulty speaking and hearing. He also has severe arthritis in his right knee, which he developed following a hip replacement. Nevertheless, he has continued to tour the world. Despite speculation that he may resign, he appears determined to remain in office until his death or until he becomes irrevocably mentally impaired. Those who have met him say that, though physically in poor shape, he remains mentally in full health.

Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope ever to preach in a Lutheran Church in Rome, in December 1983

In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. Indeed the nature of the relationship between the pope and Bono was revealed when someone working at U2's recording studio revealed that a recording session for Bono's band, U2 was interrupted on at least one occasion by a phone call to the recording studio in Dublin by the pope, who wanted to talk to Bono about the campaign.